Benjamin Cassidy edits and writes for the magazine’s news section, “Currents,” as well as the health and real estate channels online. Prior to joining Seattle Met, Ben was the arts and entertainment reporter for The Berkshire Eagle, a regional daily based in the mountains of Western Massachusetts. He graduated from the University of Michigan and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Hoopsla

A Seattleite's Rooting Guide for March Madness

None of Seattle's schools made the Big Dance, but there are still plenty of locals competing in the 2022 NCAA hoops tournament.

03/17/2022 By Benjamin Cassidy

Nickname Dropping

Washington Still Isn't the Evergreen State, Officially Speaking

After the close of the 2022 legislative session in Olympia, one of the most common misconceptions about our state persists.

03/14/2022 By Benjamin Cassidy

War Stories

A Seattle Author Traces His Family's Holocaust Survival in Soviet Ukraine

Maksim Goldenshteyn's So They Remember chronicles an overlooked atrocity in an area facing similar peril today.

03/07/2022 By Benjamin Cassidy

Coming Together

A Discovery Park Peace Offering

The creation of a public park on a former military site in Seattle's Magnolia neighborhood ended decades of discord.

03/07/2022 By Benjamin Cassidy and Angela Cabotaje

Groovy, Baby

1972: The Audacious Year That Changed Seattle

Occupied protests, consequential votes, the birth of KEXP—a legacy created 50 years ago still lingers today.

03/07/2022 By Angela Cabotaje, Benjamin Cassidy, and Sophie Grossman Illustrations by Jordan Kay

Welcome Developments

The New Odessa Brown Children's Clinic in Othello Is Eye-Popping

The new Odessa Brown Children's Clinic branch aims to address some of the inequities cited in a report on racism at Seattle Children's.

03/04/2022 By Benjamin Cassidy

News Wire

University of Washington Students Can Graduate In Person Again

At campuses in Seattle, Tacoma, and Bothell, the institution will hold in-real-life ceremonies for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began.

03/03/2022 By Benjamin Cassidy

News Wire

Until Further Notice, Seattle’s Colors Are Blue and Yellow

From rally flags to Sounders shirts to Space Needle lighting, support for Ukraine was everywhere this past weekend.

02/28/2022 By Benjamin Cassidy

This Month in Seattle Tech

The Strange Saga of the KUOW Radio Glitch in Mazdas

Also in Seattle tech news: Amazon gives corporate workers raises and Microsoft and Expedia push for workers to return to the office.

02/25/2022 By Benjamin Cassidy

Explainer

What’s Up with the Giant Hole across from Seattle City Hall?

In this developer-happy city, a prime patch of downtown Seattle real estate where the Public Safety Building used to sit has been vacant for a long time.

02/24/2022 By Benjamin Cassidy Illustrations by Jacopo Rosati

ICYMI

Lego Trafficking at Pike Place Market and Other Odd Seattle News

A Nobel Prize medal is auctioned off, while the Xbox mini fridge and signs declaring the end of the internet highlight a weird past few months.

02/23/2022 By Benjamin Cassidy

Currents

Seattle's Psychedelic Revolution Has Arrived

The decriminalization of psilocybin, as well as increased interest in treating mental illness with psychedelics, means shrooms may be here to stay.

02/22/2022 By Benjamin Cassidy

Coronavirus Chronicles

Washington's About to Enter the "Live with It" Stage of the Pandemic

Officials signed off on the end of vaccine verifications and the indoor mask mandate this week, citing declining case counts and more test availability.

02/18/2022 By Benjamin Cassidy

Inspo

Justice G. Helen Whitener Builds Her Case in Our Supreme Court

The judge was floated on a few long lists to replace justice Stephen Breyer on that other Supreme Court, some citing her legal advocacy for LGBTQ rights.

02/17/2022 By Benjamin Cassidy

Group Chat

How Progressive Is Seattle?

An extra-long 2021 election season gave us more time to weigh which side of the left we’re really on.

02/15/2022 By Benjamin Cassidy

Coronavirus Chronicles

Washington's Mask Debate Heats Up

State schools superintendent Chris Reykdal's comments about lifting the indoor mandate foreshadow a broader conflict about masking in Washington.

02/10/2022 By Benjamin Cassidy

Feature

The Race to Free Washington's Last Orca in Captivity

The orca known at the Miami Seaquarium as Lolita was captured in Penn Cove as a calf in the 1970s. Now, the race to free her is more urgent than ever.

02/08/2022 By Benjamin Cassidy